Lies My Parents Told Me
by xperimental
Summary: When Charlie reveals her relationship with Joey to her father, it’s not the only one of her secrets that comes out.
1. Act I

**Title: Lies My Parents Told Me  
Author: xperimental  
Rating: T  
Disclaimer: Do I look like a crack monkey? No? Well, I obviously don't own them then.  
Spoilers: Um, YES! Seeing as the fic is all about that major spoiler that came out about a week ago. If you don't know what I'm talking about then just hit the back button right now, trust me you don't want to know.  
Summary: When Charlie reveals her relationship with Joey to her father, it's not the only one of her secrets that comes out.**

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**Lies My Parents Told Me**

**Act I**

"I want to tell my father about us." When Charlie says it, it comes as a shock to the both of them.

She'd been in the middle of pouring herself a cup of coffee as she prepared to go to work, while Joey sat at the kitchen table reading a magazine, trying to distract herself so that she wouldn't try and jump Charlie then and there.

Joey had only been back in town for two weeks and it was already like she had never left. Charlie had been waiting on the dock as her boat pulled in, despite the fact that it was well after three in the morning. They'd talked and agreed to take things slowly. An hour later they were in bed together. Another hour after that, Joey had officially moved into Leah's house for the fourth time. Apparently, slow was not a speed that either woman was accustomed to.

"Are you sure?"

Charlie nodded as her girlfriend stood and took her by the hands. "Yeah. Dad's not going to get any better, his memory is getting worse every day. I'm afraid that if we wait…I want him to know about us, about you." She ducked her head shyly. "And how happy you make me, before it's too late."

"Okay. So when are we going to do it?"

"I have this weekend off, I was thinking that we could do it then, if that's okay."

"It's more than okay," Joey said, happy to agree to whatever Charlie wanted. It seemed like this was the final major hurdle in their relationship, once they told Ross then it was clear sailing.

What was supposed to be a quick thank you kiss, quickly turned into something more, and before either of them knew it Charlie was sitting on the kitchen table with Joey in between her legs and her tongue down her throat. So, of course, the youngest Buckton would choose that moment to walk in on them.

"Oh, okay, now I'm scarred for life!" Ruby dramatically announced her presence.

"Sorry," Joey apologized, drawing back and letting Charlie, who was blushing furiously, slip down off the table.

Charlie cleared her throat, trying to regain some of her lost composure. "Rubes, we're going to visit Dad this weekend, do you want to come?"

"We as in the both of you?" Ruby asked. "You're going to tell him?"

Charlie nodded.

"Oh, I wouldn't miss that for the world. I'm so in."

"Okay, good." She breathed a sigh of relief and shouldered her backpack. "Right, well I am running late for work-"

"Hmm, wonder why?" Ruby remarked cheekily.

Charlie glared pointedly at her before kissing both girls on the cheek. "Don't forget to do your homework!" she ordered Ruby as she rushed out the door.

"Yes, mother," Ruby drawled sarcastically once Charlie was out of earshot. She sighed and dumped her massive schoolbag by the door. "So." She dropped into the chair opposite Joey. "Are you nervous about meeting Dad?"

"A little," Joey admitted. She knew how much Charlie admired her father, she didn't want to think about what would happen if Ross took the news badly.

"Don't be. I've never seen my big sister this happy and if Dad and Morag can't accept that, then it's their loss." It was true, around Joey it was like Charlie became a totally different person and having experienced both Charlies, Ruby could say that she definitely preferred the with Joey version. "Besides even if Dad has a problem with it, it's not like he's going to remember it." Ruby slapped a hand across her mouth as she realized what she'd just said. "Oh my god. Um, can we pretend that I didn't just say that?"

"Sure," Joey agreed, smirking just enough to cause her dimples to show. She really appreciated how supportive of her and Charlie's relationship Ruby had become after her initial freak out. It felt good to have her as their number one cheerleader.

"Okay, cool. So I'm going to go and get out of this stupid uniform," said Ruby, glaring down at the tartan sack that Summer Bay High cruelly forced her to wear. "Do you want to watch the next episode of Skins when I'm done?" Since Ruby illegally downloaded the show, they could only watch it when Charlie was out of the house, to avoid a conflict of interest. Not that Charlie personally cared, it was just that if she caught them, then as a police officer, she was obligated to report it.

"Yeah. Hey, I'm doing dinner tonight, how does lasagne sound?"

"Meat, cheese, pasta. There is no bad there," Ruby sighed contentedly at the thought.

"You sound just like your sister."

-

"Ruby, come on!" Charlie yelled impatiently out the car window, she was anxious to get moving. They were already running late thanks to Ruby being unable to locate her hairbrush that morning and now the teenager was taking forever to say goodbye to her boyfriend. "We're only going away for the weekend and she's acting like she's never going to see him again," she grumbled.

"You do the same thing when I go out on overnighters," Joey pointed out, totally amused.

"I do not!" Charlie indignantly protested. "Do I?"

Joey smirked at her. "Actually, sometimes you're worse." She cupped Charlie's suddenly red cheek. "Don't be embarrassed, I like it."

Charlie grinned but before they could do anything more, the back door of the car opened, signalling Ruby's presence. "Are we going or what?"

-

"Come on, Charlie, step on it," Ruby urged as they drove along the highway. "I swear, you drive like a little old lady."

"I'm going the limit, Rubes. I'm a cop, how good do you think it'd look if I got pulled over for speeding?"

Ruby huffed and slumped back in her seat. "I can't wait until I get my license. I'll be able to drive wherever I want."

"Oh yeah? In whose car?"

"Yours?"

"That's so not going to be happening," Charlie said with a smirk. If she had anything to do with it, Ruby wouldn't be getting her driver's licence until she was thirty. At the very least.

Ruby rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the other occupant of the car. "You're quiet," she observed, tapping Joey lightly on the arm.

It drew Joey's attention away from the passing scenery and back to the inside of the car. "Yeah, sorry, I guess I'm just a little distracted." She'd never done the whole meet the parents thing before but she suspected that it was even more difficult when your girlfriend's father couldn't remember his own name half the time.

"Jo, I told you, they're going to love you," Charlie reassured her. It worried her sometimes, how low Joey's self-confidence seemed to be.

"Seriously, you're like the nicest person ever," Ruby added. "It's pretty much impossible not to."

Seeing her girlfriend's adorably bashful expression, Charlie couldn't help removing one hand from the steering wheel and reaching across to take Joey's. When Joey grinned back at her she couldn't help thinking about how lucky she was that this girl loved her. She loves her, she's loyal to her and she cares about her. After years of coming second best in so many people's lives, it was enough to almost make Charlie cry.

"Uh, as disgustingly cute as you guys are, I'd prefer not to die in a fiery car crash. Eyes on the road, Charlie," Ruby interrupted the moment.

"Sorry," Charlie chuckled sheepishly and returned eyes to the road stretching out before them but keeping her fingers curled around Joey's hand. Even with Ruby's warning ringing in her ears, Charlie couldn't help stealing glances at her beautiful girlfriend out of the corner of her eye. She honestly didn't know why Joey had given her a second chance but she was bound and determined that she wasn't going to screw it up this time.

-

Everly Garden's was a surprisingly nice place, if you didn't know that it was an assisted living community you'd think it was just one of those upscale gated communities.

They parked in the driveway and were about to start unloading the bags from the boot of the car when Morag came out to greet them.

"Charlie," she greeted her eldest stepdaughter with a terse hug.

"Hi, how's Dad?"

"He's having a good day," Morag was pleased to report then she noticed the extra guest. "Ah, Ruby, you didn't tell me that you were bringing a friend from school."

"Oh! No, she didn't," Charlie blurted out awkwardly while Ruby practically pissed herself laughing. Even Joey was quietly chuckling to herself. "That's Joey. She's, um…Well, she's actually what I came to talk to you and Dad about and I think that we should probably get that over with right away."

Morag eyed Charlie dubiously, wondering what it could possibly be about this girl that Charlie had to announce. She just hoped that Charlie hadn't begun to follow in the footsteps of Irene, who collected stray children like they were Pokemon, and decided to adopt some teenage tearaway.

"Right, I'll just go and wake Ross up from his nap then, shall I?"

"Thanks," Charlie whispered as Morag disappeared back inside the house, then she turned to Ruby who was still laughing. "You know, it's really not that funny."

"No, no, you're right. It's not funny," Ruby said, struggling to compose herself. "Not funny at all."

"You know, we don't have to say anything if you don't want to," Joey offered kindly, seeing how much Charlie's already fragile confidence had been shaken.

Although the offer was tempting to the more cowardly side of her, Charlie stood strong in her decision. "No." She shook her head and took Joey's hands in her own. "I want to do this," she said and was rewarded with a brilliant smile.

"Okay."

Ruby looked up from unloading their luggage to see that her sister and Joey were caught up in another one of their epic staring matches. She knew for a fact that they could do this for hours, she'd timed them. "Hey, are you guys going to stand around staring at each other all day or are you going to help me with these bags?"

-

Choosing to dump their bags in the hall, mostly to avoid awkward questions about why Joey would be sleeping in Charlie's room, the girls joined Ross and Morag sitting out in the sunshine on the patio. It was such a nice day to potentially be disowned.

With Joey on one side and Ruby on the other, Charlie was ready to face the scariest thing that she'd ever have to do.

"This is Joey. She's my girlfriend," she said bluntly. Of course, it would figure that the first time that she'd actually get to use her 'coming out' speech, she'd forget the whole thing and have to revert back to her old bull in a china shop way of getting things done. "We're together. I don't know if this means that I'm gay or whatever, I just know that I love her and she loves me. And…yeah, that's about it," she finished, swallowing hard as she nervously awaited her father's reaction.

"You're happy?" Ross enquired after a long silence, his face and voice giving nothing away.

"Yes." Charlie squeezed Joey's hand tightly. "Very."

"And Ruby, you're okay with it?"

"Yeah," Ruby said enthusiastically. "Joey's awesome."

Ross finally smiled. "Then I am okay with it too."

"Really?" Charlie squeaked in surprise. She hadn't been expecting it to be this easy.

"Sweetheart, all I want is to see my two girls happy and healthy before I'm too far gone. If Joey is who truly makes you happy then you have my absolute blessing."

-

Looking through the widow from the kitchen, Charlie watched the three most important people in her life talk animatedly about fishing, of all things.

She'd come in to get herself a drink but had spent the last five minutes just watching them interact and smiling to herself. When she heard Morag clearing her throat behind her, Charlie's back stiffened defensively. The older woman had been conspicuously quiet since the announcement and now it appeared that she had something to say.

"Let me guess, you don't approve?" Charlie said, her jaw clenched tightly. She had a grudging respect for Morag, she'd even come to like her a little, but she sure as hell didn't need her approval. "I thought that as a judge, you of all people would be a little more open minded about this."

"Oh please, Charlie, give me a little credit," Morag hit back. "Believe it or not, my problem does not stem from the fact that you are both women."

"So what is your problem?"

"Well, Joey is awfully young-"

"She's twenty." Or she would be in November. "She is one of the most mature and level headed people that I have ever met. Do I have to remind you that there's an even bigger age gap between you and Dad? Maybe you should think about that before getting on your moral high horse. At least she's not already married."

And with that parting shot, Charlie grabbed her drink and returned to join the others on the patio, leaving a shocked former judge in her wake. She knew that she'd have to apologize later but for now it felt pretty good that she had actually defended her relationship with Joey instead of backing down like she would've in the past.

The second Charlie retook her seat, Joey's attention was focused on her. "Are you okay?" she asked, instantly sensing the tension pouring off her lover's body.

Looking into those big, concerned golden brown eyes, Charlie had to smile. "I am now," she sighed, leaning her head into the crook of Joey's neck. When she was with Joey, everything was okay.

-

After a pleasant enough lunch, Charlie was content to sit back and relax against Joey, while Ruby and her father chatted about how the younger girl was doing at school.

"So how's that boyfriend of yours treating you?" Ross inquired, eager to hear any new information about his daughter's lives while he was still lucid enough.

"He had to go visit his mum earlier in the week because she's been having some trouble with Brendan, but other than that Xavier's been amazing."

"I'm glad to hear that. You deserve the best. You've grown up to be such a pretty girl, I'm so glad you got your mother's eyes."

Joey didn't quite know what to make of it when she felt Charlie suddenly stiffen up beside her.

"Dad, Mum had brown eyes, remember?" Ruby said gently, thinking her father's memory was starting to become muddled once more.

"No, no. It was your grandmother that had brown eyes. You think I don't know what colour my own wife's eyes were?" Ross frowned, growing frustrated.

"Dad," Charlie's voice was low and there was a clear warning in the tone.

However, Ross was unperturbed. If Ruby was determined to play dumb then he'd just have to spell it out for her. "I wasn't talking about Elsie, I was talking about Charlie. She's your mother, you silly girl."

**End Act I**


	2. Act II

**Act II**

_"I wasn't talking about Elsie, I was talking about Charlie. She's your mother, you silly girl."_

Ruby started giggling, she knew that she shouldn't and really did feel awful about it. She knew that her father couldn't help getting confused, but the idea that Charlie was her mother was just so absurd that she couldn't stop herself from laughing. She looked to her big sister, expecting to see her amusement mirrored on Charlie's face. It wasn't.

There was nothing but pure, unadulterated panic written all across Charlie's face. _Oh god…_

Ruby stood up so quickly that her chair clattered to the ground. "Charlie, it's not true, right?" she started to plead, verging on hysteria. "Tell me that he's just gotten confused again."

A single tear forced it's way down Charlie's cheek as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to pretend that this wasn't happening. She couldn't speak, she could barely breathe. If it wasn't for Joey's hand pressed firmly against her back, Charlie may have stopped functioning altogether.

Charlie's silence was damning. "Oh my god," Ruby whispered, utterly horrified. This was **not** happening, it couldn't be. No. Unable to deal with any of this, Ruby fled back inside the house.

"Did I say something to upset her?" Ross asked, genuinely bewildered. He looked to his wife for guidance.

"I, ah, no. No, you didn't, darling. But I think it's time for you to have a little lie down," she replied, thinking it best to remove her husband from the situation before he accidentally dropped anymore bombshells.

"Charlie?" Joey asked gently, once they were alone.

"Can we not do this here?" Charlie replied in a strained whisper. She knew that she was going to have to tell Joey the truth, she deserved that much, but she couldn't do it there. It was too open, too exposed.

"Of course, where do you want to go?"

Home. Away. Back in time so she could stop her father before he could reveal the truth.. "The bedroom."

"Sure."

Once they were both standing Joey tenderly took Charlie's face in her hands and gave her a reassuring kiss. "Whatever you're going to say to me, I want you to know that we're going to be okay." As far as Joey was concerned the past was the past and she wasn't going to let whatever happened then have any bearing on their relationship now.

Charlie managed a shaky yet grateful smile. "Thank you." She may have already lost a sister, she couldn't deal with losing her girlfriend too.

-

They had retreated to the bedroom to talk but so far not a word had been uttered.

Joey hands stroked Charlie's hair and back while the older woman clung to her lover like she was a life preserver, like she was the only thing keeping her grounded.

"When I was a kid, there was this guy who was always hanging around the house. He was Dad's partner as well as his best friend," Charlie began, her voice startling them both. "I remember that I never liked him very much and always tried to stay in my room when he was around."

All of a sudden, this story became very familiar to Joey. She remembered the bad vibes she'd always gotten from Robbo, how she'd always tried to avoid him and hide in her room when ever Brett had him around. She patiently waited for Charlie to continue, knowing first hand how hard talking about something like this could be.

"One night, I was sick," Charlie continued, trying to blink back tears. She refused to let herself cry, she'd promised herself one day when she was twelve years old that she'd never cry over this again. "I was doped to the eyeballs on cold meds, so I'd been sent to bed early. He and Dad had been drinking in the study like they always did. He came in to my room and sat on the side of my bed…"

"Oh Charlie," Joey whispered, her voice full of sorrow.

"I was so out of it, I didn't know what was happening, couldn't do anything to stop it. Maybe that's why I'm such a control freak now," Charlie tried to joke. "…In the morning I thought that I'd just had a bad dream. I wanted it all to just be a bad dream. But then a couple of months later, I started getting sick. At first, Mum thought that it was just food poisoning but when it didn't go away after a week or so, she took me to the doctor he did a blood test and it turned out that I was…" She stopped and swallowed hard. "Pregnant and it was too late to…" _Get rid of it._ "Do anything about it."

"Dad was furious, he thought that I'd been sleeping around to try and punish him for not paying enough attention to me. So I told him. I told him and he believed me. He didn't question it, didn't ask me if I was sure. He just believed me. He hugged me and told me that he was going to take care of everything." Charlie shifted and nuzzled her face further into Joey's neck.

"They kept me at home, hid me away in my room whenever anyone came over." Back then his family's reputation meant everything to Ross and he wasn't about to let it tarnished by something like having a barely teenaged pregnant daughter. "And when Rubes was born, Dad used his influence to have his and mum's names put down on the birth certificate."

"As soon as I was well enough, I got shipped off to boarding school and only got to see Ruby during the holidays. It was so easy to pretend that she was just my baby sister, eventually I didn't even have to pretend anymore. They did the right thing, I couldn't have been a proper mother to Ruby. I was just a kid. I'm still not ready to be her mother. I never wanted Ruby to find out, I never wanted anybody to know."

Joey hugged her tighter, feeling so helpless. She just wanted to make it better. "And your Dad's friend?" she inquired gently.

"All I know is that I never saw him again." Charlie finally tilted her head up to look at Joey for the first time since they'd entered the bedroom. "Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you?" She was feeling angry at so many people at that moment but Charlie was not one of them.

"Because I've been lying to you, even after I promised that I wouldn't." It had been one of Joey's only conditions when they had gotten back together, that Charlie always told her the truth, no matter how painful it may be.

Joey tenderly kissed her forehead. "I know that this isn't about me, I get it."

"Thank you." Charlie whispered, kissing the underside of her lover's jaw. "I know that you weren't expecting me to come with so much baggage. If you want out, I'll understand." Joey was young and it wasn't fair to expect her to deal with her girlfriend having a daughter that was only four years younger than herself.

"Yeah, because I came into this relationship completely issue free," Joey remarked dryly, making them both laugh, before getting serious. "Charlie, I am not going anywhere."

Charlie let herself relax a little at Joey's statement, now she only had Ruby to worry about losing. "How am I going to tell Rubes? She's going to hate me." She probably already does.

"Hey, she's not going to hate you, I know that she's upset right now but Ruby loves you."

"She loved me when she thought that I was her sister," Charlie uttered miserably. She liked the slightly unconventional relationship that she and Ruby had and she didn't want to lose that. "I don't want this to change things between us. I mean, I've never felt like I was her mother, I know that sounds awful but it's true. I don't want to be a mum to her."

Joey was at a loss for words, she knew that there was no way that the two of them could just continue on as sisters after this, no matter how much they both might want to. "Maybe you should go and check on her? She must've calmed down a bit by now."

"The words Ruby and calm don't really go together," Charlie managed to joke, knowing that she wasn't any better. Both of the Buckton women could be described as drama queens and to say that they were prone to overreacting would be an understatement. That was one of the many reasons it was so nice to have Joey, who was so laidback about most things that she was practically horizontal, around. With her there to step in and mediate their little squabbles, life was so much easier. "Besides, I doubt that she's going to want me crowding her right now."

"Would you like me to go and check on her?"

"Would you?" Charlie was grateful that Joey had offered without having to be asked. She really was handling this amazingly well.

"Of course. Are you going to be okay?" the younger girl asked, worried about leaving Charlie alone when she was in such a fragile state.

"I think I can manage alone for five minutes. I should go and clean myself up anyway." Charlie wiped at her mascara streaked cheeks. "I must look awful."

"No, you don't," Joey said with total sincerity. "You're beautiful."

-

"Morag, I told you that I didn't want to talk!" Ruby yelled in response to the knock on her door. She knew that the older woman was concerned about her but Morag was so not someone that she felt comfortable confiding in.

"It's Joey."

Joey, on the other hand, was. They had developed a friendship that went far beyond Joey's relationship with Charlie. So after only a moment of hesitation, Ruby unlocked the door and let her in.

"So how are you doing?" Joey inquired, taking a seat next to Ruby on the side of the bed.

"Well, considering that I just found out that my entire life has been a lie, I'm just peachy," Ruby said sarcastically, wiping tears from her face with the back of her hand.

"Sorry," Joey apologized. "It was a stupid question, I know."

"How's Charlie?" Ruby asked before she could stop herself.

"...Not too good."

"Good."

"Sorry?"

"No, it's good that she's feeling bad." Ruby abruptly stood up and started to pace the room as she ranted angrily. "She should be feeling bad. She has been lying to me for my entire life! And for what? To cover up the fact that she was loose even when she was a kid?" Ruby knew that she wasn't exactly being fair but, in her defence, Charlie's past trackrecord when it came to men really did speak for itself.

"Whoa!" Joey jumped up, ready to defend her lover. "Don't talk about her like that, Ruby. You don't know what happened."

"What and you do?"

"Yeah," Joey admitted quietly. "I do."

"For how long?" Ruby didn't know if she could take it if Joey had been lying to her too.

"I just found out then, I swear."

"So why don't you just explain it to me?"

"Because it's not my place." Joey paused, sighing deeply. This was such a horrible situation and she hated seeing both Ruby and Charlie hurting. She just wished that there was something more that she could do to make it all go away. "Look, you just really need to talk to Charlie."

When Ruby saw the sadness in Joey's eyes, she felt her stomach drop. "On second thought, I don't think I even want to know." Her legs gave way and she fell heavily back down to the mattress. "I don't want to talk to her right now."

"What else are you going to do? Sit in here and obsess over it all night? You're going to drive yourself crazy thinking about all the possibilities." She knew that it would be better if this was all cleared up now, rather than making Charlie go through with recounting her ordeal again in the future. Joey knew from experience that it never got any easier. She rarely talked about Robbo now, but when she did it was like she was right back in that moment, on that boat again, and it made her skin crawl.

She sat down on the bed again and put her arm around Ruby's shoulders, letting the younger girl lean on her. "Charlie loves you and, right now, she's thinking that you hate her."

"I don't." Ruby may have been confused, angry and hurting but that didn't mean that she hated Charlie. "I really don't."

"I'm not the one that you need to be telling that to."

-

"Rubes!" Charlie exclaimed in surprise, returning from the bathroom to find Ruby and Joey patiently waiting for her.

"Tell me," Ruby demanded. "I want to know the truth."

"Okay." Charlie knew that this had to happen and there was no time like the present. "You'd better sit down."

"I'll leave you guys to it," Joey said, not wanting to intrude on such a private moment.

"Wait." Charlie caught her by the wrist before she could leave the room. "Stay?" she begged, fully aware of how pathetic she sounded. "Please? I need you."

With a glance at Ruby, to make sure that it was okay with the younger girl, Joey acquiesced to her girlfriend's request and hovered, uncertain of where to sit, until Charlie pulled her down onto the bed in between them. At least this way if Ruby lost it, she could hide behind Joey.

"Before I start, I just want you to know that Mum and Dad…they did the right thing and they both loved you like you were their own daughter." _Probably more in Dad's case,_ Charlie couldn't stop herself from thinking bitterly as she remember all the attention that Ross had showered on Ruby. Attention that she had been deprived of when she had been the same age. "I don't want you to doubt that."

"Okay."

"Good, good," Charlie muttered, clearly stalling. She gnawed on her bottom lip, trying to figure out the best way to tell her daughter that the reason she had been brought up believing that her grandparents were her parents was because the girl that she thought was her big sister was really her mother who had been raped when she was still a kid herself. Somehow, she didn't think that saying it like that was going to go down too well.

"Just tell her what you told me," Joey encouraged her with a supportive smile.

Drawing strength from the hand that enclosed around her own, Charlie steeled her resolve and opened her mouth. "When I was eleven, something happened…"

-

"I told you, she hates me," Charlie concluded pessimistically, flopping back across the bed. Although Ruby's reaction to the truth about her true parentage wasn't exactly as explosive as Charlie had expected it to be, it wasn't great either. Ruby had been silent for what felt like forever after Charlie finished telling her story and then quietly excused herself from the room.

"She doesn't hate you," said Joey, trying to keep a more positive outlook on the situation. "Actually, I think that she took it rather well. Ruby's a good kid that's had a pretty major bomb dropped on her. You just have to give her some time, she'll come around."

"I suppose you're right," the older woman sighed. Glancing at the clock on the bedside table, Charlie was shocked to discover that it was almost six in the evening. Where had the day gone? "We should probably think about getting dinner." She bit her lip and looked coyly at her lover. "I don't suppose you want to cook?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Takeaway it is then." Charlie held her hands out for Joey to haul her up off the bed. "We should let Ruby choose, it might help cheer her up."

"Sounds good to me," Joey agreed, knowing that Ruby would pick pizza. Ruby always picked pizza whenever she could get away with it.

She opened the door to the bedroom and stood back to let Charlie out first. She almost ran straight into her girlfriend's back when Charlie stopped unexpectedly at the sight of Ruby sitting patiently in the lounge room with her packed bags resting at her feet.

"What's this?" Charlie asked apprehensively.

"I want to go home. Tonight," Ruby said firmly.

"Okay," Charlie agreed easily. At that moment, she would've agreed to anything that Ruby asked as long as it kept her happy. "I'll just tell Morag that we're leaving and-"

"I was actually hoping that Joey could drive me back," Ruby cut her off, making it clear that she wanted to return to Summer Bay without her sister…Mother. Whatever. "Alone."

"Oh."

"I don't think that's-" Joey began, uneasily. She didn't want to go stepping on Charlie's toes here.

"It's okay," Charlie said quietly. She dug through her pockets and handed Joey her car keys.

"Look, I don't hate you or anything. I just need some space to try and process all of this," Ruby tried to explain. She didn't want to hurt Charlie but she really couldn't be around her right now. She couldn't stay in this house with two people who had been lying to her since the moment she was born.

_These Bucktons sure love their processing,_ Joey thought, remembering how long it took for Charlie to 'process' her feelings for her. _I guess it must be genetic._

Charlie forced a smile, trying not to show how disappointed she was. "It's fine." She turned to Joey, who was still focused on her in concern. "You should leave now before it gets too dark."

Ruby took that as her cue to start taking her things out to the car.

"Are you sure that you're okay with this?" Joey asked, touching Charlie's arm lightly.

"I don't have much choice, do I?" Charlie remarked with a crooked half smile. "I'm not going to force her to stay. Besides, I suppose I should have a talk with Dad while you're gone."

Joey nodded understandingly. "I'll drop her off and then drive straight back." Ruby had Leah and Xavier and Nicole to look out for her in Summer Bay, she'd be okay without Joey. Charlie on the other hand, would not.

"Thank you." Charlie pulled her girlfriend into a much needed hug , pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You know, you're kind of amazing." The conversation that she had had with Morag earlier in the day came to Charlie's mind, somehow describing Joey as level headed and mature seemed more like an insult now. She was so much more than that. Charlie knew that if their positions were reversed she wouldn't be handling this nearly as well.

Joey pulled back just far enough to look at her. "Eh, you're not so bad either," she shot back with a cheeky grin. She affectionately nuzzled her nose against Charlie's. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Ruby paused in the doorway, watching the couple kiss. Any other time she wouldn't have had a second thought about barging in there and cheekily making a loud comment about them getting a room. Now that just seemed like it would be inappropriate. She awkwardly cleared her throat loud enough to get their attention.

"Tell your Dad I said goodbye," she said, perhaps a little harsh but she didn't care.

Charlie nodded, releasing Joey from her hold. "I will."

"Guess that's our cue to leave." Joey gave Charlie's hand one last squeeze before letting go and crossing the room to join Ruby in the hallway. "I'll see you later."

Charlie nodded, biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from crying as she watched the two most important girls in her life walk out the door. "I love you."

**End Act II**


	3. Act III

**A/N - So I started writing this fic way back when the spoilers first leaked that Charlie was Ruby's mother because I knew that they'd screw it up but little did I know just how badly they'd screw it up. Hopefully, I've managed to do a little better.**

** Act III**

"Charlie is going to kill us for eating in her car." It was the first substantial thing Ruby had said, other than a mumbled dinner order, since they'd left.

Joey smirked, she knew for a fact that things a lot messier than cheeseburgers and fries had been eaten inside the tiny blue car. "Somehow, I really don't think she'll mind."

Sighing, Ruby turned her head to look at her travelling companion who was illuminated in neon red by the taillights of the car in front of them. For the past twenty minutes they'd been stuck in a gridlock, thanks to a massive pileup on the highway ahead of them. She was glad that Joey had the presence of mind to stop to pick up dinner at a McDonalds drive thru before they'd left the city. Ruby didn't think that she'd be able to eat but had surprised herself by devouring her chicken nuggets and fries in record time.

Ruby crumpled her now empty McDonalds bag in her hand and tossed it carelessly onto the backseat then shifted until she was sitting sideways in her seat, fully facing Joey. "Aren't you mad at her?" she asked, wondering how Joey could just be so accepting of the entire sordid situation. Ruby knew that if Xavier had been hiding the fact that he had a child from her, she'd not be taking it nearly as well as Joey appeared to be.

"Why would I be mad at Charlie?"

"Because she's been lying to you, after she promised that she wouldn't. I mean, the fact that she has a sixteen year old daughter is a pretty big detail to leave out."

"Yeah but I understand why she didn't tell me. This was something that she wasn't planning on ever telling anybody. I can't be angry at her for not making an exception for me," Joey explained, sounding completely reasonable. "That'd just be selfish."

"I don't know how you do it, Jo. I don't know how you can be so calm and rational about this when I'm feeling so..." Ruby frowned, looking down at her hands that were curled into tight fists and resting in her lap. She tried to figure out how she was feeling but it was impossible to pin it down to just one emotion.

"Rubes?"

"They have kept this massive secret from me, they've lied to me my whole life and I'm angry. But I don't have anybody to take it out on. I can't be angry at Charlie because she was just a kid and I can't be angry at mum because she's dead and I can't be angry at Ross because he's sick and probably doesn't even remember what happened. I can't even be angry at the guy that hurt Charlie because I have no idea who he is and it sucks," Ruby ranted. Breathing heavily, she angrily wiped away tears. "It just really sucks."

"Yeah, it does," Joey agreed quietly, content to be Ruby's sounding board.

"I hate him. I hate him so much for what he did to her. But if _it_ hadn't happened, I wouldn't even be here. I never would've existed. What...How I am I supposed to deal with that, Joey?" Ruby looked pleading at the older girl, desperately wanting an easy answer that would make all this pain and confusion go away.

And as much as Joey wished that she could give her one, she couldn't. "I honestly don't know, Ruby. But I do know that Charlie loves you, despite of how you were created, she loves you so much...She told me that you were the best thing that ever happened to her, you know."

"She did?" Ruby asked in a small voice.

Joey nodded. "She told me that for a long time, you were the only reason she got out of bed in the mornings, you were the only reason she wanted to live," she revealed, hoping that Charlie wouldn't be too angry at her for revealing something that she had told her in confidence.

Ruby swallowed hard and looked out the widow into the darkness, trying to process the implications in Joey's statement but her overloaded brain just couldn't handle it at that very moment. It was just too much, it was all too much. "So what does this mean for us?" she asked instead.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, does this mean that you're like my stepmum now or what?" She may have been wary of the relationship in the beginning but now Ruby couldn't have been more grateful for Joey's presence in their lives. She couldn't imagine going through all of this with any of Charlie's former partners. Not even Roman, who she got along with well enough, and especially not Angelo. She shuddered as she thought of the mess that insensitive dolt probably would've made of things.

"Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Joey laughed. "You and I are friends, the fact that Charlie is your mother isn't going to change that."

"But what if you two break up?" Ruby fretted.

"Well..." She really hadn't thought about that. "Our friendship is independent of my relationship with Charlie, I mean things might get a little awkward for a while but I'd like to think that we'd be able to get past that."

"Good. That's good." So much had changed already, Ruby didn't think that she'd be able to handle losing Joey as a friend too.

"Look, Ruby," Joey began a little awkwardly. "I suppose that this goes without saying but, please don't tell anybody about this, at least not until Charlie and I get back."

"What, I can't even talk to Xavier about it?" Ruby asked shrilly. This was so unfair.

"I know that it'll be hard but the more people that know, the bigger the chance of it getting out, and you know how Summer Bay is." Once a secret was out there, it spread like wildfire and it was almost guaranteed that the entire town would know by the end of the day, especially if Colleen Smart was involved. "Rubes, please," she pushed, knowing that it would devastate Charlie if this secret got out.

"Okay, I'll keep it to myself," Ruby finally agreed reluctantly. Upon further reflection, she realized that it would be for the best. She couldn't even imagine the horrible things that would be said by the idiots at school if word got out, she'd seen what kind of narrow-minded idiocy they were capable of when Charlie was outed and it was bad enough when she'd just been watching on from the sidelines, she could just imagine how bad it would be to be the target of their stupid taunts.

"Thank you."

Ruby sighed deeply and let her forehead rest against the cool glass of the window, watching the scenery pass slowly by as the traffic crawled along. "I liked the way things were, I don't want them to change. But they're going to, aren't they?"

Joey shrugged, honestly not knowing how to answer. "Maybe. It's really up to you, I suppose. I know that Charlie doesn't want anything to change either."

"She's my mother, there's certain stuff that you just shouldn't say to your mother...and I've said them to Charlie. Oh my god," Ruby groaned, thinking back to the way that she constantly teased Charlie about her sex life and, even worse, how Charlie used to confide in her about it. "I mean, seriously, it's creepy and inappropriate to know as much about your mother's sex life as I do!"

"Actually, that was kind of creepy and inappropriate when you were just sisters." She'd never mentioned it before, but she'd always found it a little strange just how...well, open Ruby and Charlie's relationship was. Joey would sooner kill herself than talk about sex in any way with her brother but with the Bucktons it seemed like nothing was taboo.

"Yeah." Ruby laughed to herself. "I guess it was." Still, she wouldn't have traded it for the world.

-

Having just put VJ to bed and looking forward to a rare night with the house to herself, Leah was surprised and a little disappointed when Ruby and Joey came unexpectedly stumbling in through the back door.

Nonetheless, she cheerfully greeted the pair. "Hello, I wasn't expecting you back so soon." She frowned as Ruby marched straight past her, heading for her bedroom with her bags in hand. "Has something happened? Where's Charlie?"

"Uh." Joey paused awkwardly, running her hands through her hair as she tried to figure out what to say to Leah without giving too much away. "She's still with Ross."

"Did Ruby and her have a fight?" Leah asked, figuring it to be the only explanation for the sudden sullenness of the usually cheerful teenager and the absence of her older sister.

"No, not really. There was just a bit of Buckton family drama and those two just need a bit of space from each other at the moment," Joey explained, fiddling with the set of keys in her hands. "I'm actually about to head back to the city but could you please do me a favour and just keep an eye on Ruby while we're away? I mean, I don't think that she's going to do anything drastic, but just in case?"

"Oh, of course, that's no problem," Leah agreed easily, wondering if Ruby was in the right mood to watch Sleepless In Seattle with her.

"Thanks, Leah." Joey smiled gratefully, feeling a renewed appreciation for their landlady. She didn't think that there were many other people in the world that would've happily welcomed an orphaned lesbian into their home like Leah had. "I'm just going to check on Ruby before I go."

-

"Hey." Entering the room, Joey found that the younger girl was already in bed with the covers pulled all the way up to her chin, leaving only her head visible. "I'm about to leave but I just wanted to check on you and make sure that you were okay before I go. If you want I can stay. I mean, Leah's here but if you-"

"No. You should go and be with Charlie. She needs you." As confused and hurt as she was feeling now, Ruby knew that Charlie would probably be feeling even worse after being forced to relive her childhood trauma.

"Okay."

A series of beeps came from under the covers, Ruby sighed and a hand clutching her mobile phone emerged from under the blanket. "Xavier keeps texting me, wanting to know if I'm having a good time at Dad's," she sighed.

"Are you going to call him?"

Ruby bit her lip, staring at the screen of her phone for a long moment before switching the phone off entirely. "No. I'm just going to go to sleep. Hopefully when I wake up this'll all turn out to be a bad dream."

"Well, in that case, I'd better get going. Goodnight, Rubes."

"Night, Joey."

-

The drive back to city went a lot quicker than the one to Summer Bay, with the traffic running much more smoothly. Still it was almost midnight by the time Joey pulled into the driveway, so she was surprised when the car's headlight's illuminated Charlie's form curled up on the front steps of the house.

Joey exited the car and approached with caution, assuming that Charlie's talk with her father hadn't gone so well. "Hey."

Charlie rubbed her hands across her face before she looked up at her girlfriend, futilely attempting to wipe away the traces of hours worth of tears. It didn't work. She briefly wondered if she looked as drained as she felt before deciding that it didn't matter and launched herself into Joey's arms. After the day she'd had, she just really needed a hug.

"How's Ruby?" she asked after a moment, resting her head against Joey's shoulder.

"As well as can be expected, I think," Joey said, lightly stroking Charlie's hair. "Leah was there when we got home, I didn't go into any details but I asked her to keep an eye on her, just in case."

Charlie smiled gratefully against the younger girl's neck. "Thank you."

"So did you get to talk to your dad?"

"I tried to," Charlie admitted, struggling to keep herself from bursting into tears again. You'd think that after all the crying she'd done that day she'd be all out of tears. "He, uh, he didn't have a clue what I was talking about."

"Oh Charlie, I'm sorry." This was just such an awful situation that Joey didn't know what else she could say.

"I was kidding myself, thinking that this would never come out," said Charlie, drawing back a little and resting her hands on Joey's shoulders. "But I am so glad that you were here when it did."

"Charlie-" Joey blushed. She was never able to take a compliment and it saddened Charlie to think that the reason for that was because she'd never really gotten them before.

"No, seriously, I know that if you weren't here I would've freaked out and made a completely mess of it and Ruby would've hated me. So, really, thank you."

Joey grimaced and shook her head but didn't argue any further. "You look exhausted," she said instead, stroking Charlie's hair back off her face from where it had stuck to her sticky, tearstained cheek. "We should try and get some sleep."

"That's probably a good idea," Charlie agreed with a weary smile. "Hey, maybe when we wake up, this'll all turn out to have been a bad dream."

"Yeah." Joey had to smile as they quietly made their way back inside, not wanting to wake Ross or Morag. "Maybe."

-

"Do you think that Ruby will be okay?" Charlie asked as they lay together in bed. She lay on her side with Joey pressed up against her back, her arm slung protectively around Charlie's waist. Charlie felt safe and protected in a way that she'd never felt with any of her other partners. And she knew that sounded slightly ridiculous since she wasn't supposed to need protecting, she was supposed to be the big tough cop while Joey was…Joey, the girl who wouldn't purposefully hurt a fly and if she did by accident would probably spend the rest of the day feeling really bad about it. It sounded silly but it was the truth.

"Eventually, once the shock wears off, I think she will be. But…"

"But?" Charlie prompted.

"But I think that she's going to have some questions about…" Joey trailed off, unsure of how to refer to Ruby's father…Charlie's rapist, since she didn't know his name.

"Her sperm donor?" Charlie offered.

"Yeah. Him. Maybe not right away but eventually she's going to start wondering about him, his family. She might have half-brothers and sisters out there somewhere and, you know, there's illnesses that can be genetic."

"God, I've never even considered any of that," Charlie groaned, rolling onto her back and looking at Joey. "When did-"

"I had plenty of time to think about it in the car," Joey admitted sheepishly.

"Oh….Is that all you thought about?"

Joey's face screwed up adorably as she tried to recall her train of thought during the drive back to the city. "Well, no, I thought about stopping to pick up some ice cream but then I thought that it was probably too late for that and it would've melted in the car anyway," she rambled. "But, yeah, mostly I thought about that. Why?"

Charlie couldn't help grinning in amusement, her girlfriend was just too cute sometimes. "No, I thought, that maybe you'd have some second thoughts about, you know, us." Charlie felt silly saying it out loud, especially since Joey had done nothing to indicate that she'd done anything of the sort. This is why she usually kept her insecurities to herself.

Propping herself up on her elbow, so she had a slight height advantage and could look down at Charlie's face. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm nearly ten years older than you and have a teenage daughter."

Joey smiled softly. "Charlie, you've always been almost ten years older than me, it's not like that's some startling new revelation." Never one to overcomplicate things, for Joey it was all very simple. When she was with Charlie, she was happy and when she wasn't with Charlie, she was unhappy, and that's all there was to it.

"Look," she said firmly, cupping Charlie's cheek, gently forcing her to look at her as she spoke. "I love you and I love Ruby…in very different ways, obviously, and I'm not going anywhere. So stop worrying. Okay?"

Even with Joey's reassuring words, Charlie wasn't entirely convinced but she forced a smile anyway. "Okay."

"Besides, the whole older woman thing?" Joey smirked cheekily. "It's totally hot."

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

-

Two and a half weeks later, the situation hadn't exactly improved, but it hadn't gotten any worse either, so all involved considered that to be a good thing..

As they both struggled to adjust to the sudden shift in their relationship, things between Charlie and Ruby had become impossibly awkward with neither of them knowing how to act around the other anymore. Their previous closeness was a thing of the past and, as a result, they both found themselves leaning on Joey more and she had become more of a go-between for the two Bucktons than ever.

And it wasn't that she minded. At all. But between Charlie and Ruby and VJ all wanting her attention, Joey barely had a moment to herself these days and for someone who spent most of their life in solitude it could be a little overwhelming. So on one of the rare days when the stars aligned and she had the house all to herself for a few hours, she spent took the opportunity to relax and unwind.

Joey on the couch with her eyes closed and Cosmic Love by Florence + The Machine blasting through her earphones. She almost fell off the couch in shock when she opened her eyes to find Charlie standing in the doorway looking like someone had just ran over her puppy. Twice.

"Charlie, hey," she said, hitting pause on her ipod and pulling the buds from her ears. "I thought your shift didn't finish until two."

"It didn't. I left early." Charlie wandered over in a daze and sat down next to her girlfriend. "Bill. That was his name. Bill Mathers."

"Oh. You looked him up."

"Yeah." Charlie worried her lower lip with her teeth as she thought about what she had learned. "He's dead. He had cancer and he died," she revealed in a monotone voice. "Three years ago…Only a year after he got out of prison."

"Prison?"

Charlie nodded. "Two weeks after I told my dad about what he did, they found five kilos of cocaine in the boot of Bill's car. It had gone missing from the evidence lock up. My father testified against him, said that he was on the take and on the back of Dad's testimony he got fourteen years in prison. "

"You think that your dad set him up," Joey observed.

"It can't have been a co-incidence. It just…" Charlie looked down at her tightly clenched hands. "Dad did that for me. I spent so many years blaming him for not doing something to punish him but he did. He did." Her voice became thick with threatening tears. "But it's not enough. I never got a chance to confront that bastard about what he did to me…and now I never will. I-" She couldn't hold it together for a minute longer and broke down completely. She sagged against Joey and sobbed into her girlfriend's neck as they clung to each other, completely oblivious to the other presence in the house.

Ruby leant against the doorframe, struggling to take in what she had just heard. Her real father was dead but this was only after he'd spent years in prison thanks to her fake father who was really her grandfather setting him up and now her mother, who she'd always used to think was her big sister, was sobbing hysterically about it in the arms of her girlfriend.

A month ago, Ruby would've jumped in to comfort her sister without a second thought, but now Charlie wasn't her sister, she was her mother, and she was crying over the man who raped her. She was crying over Ruby's father. As much as she wanted to comfort Charlie, it just felt too weird. It felt wrong. So Ruby just bowed her head and turned away, even though it killed her to do so.

Over Joey's shoulder, Charlie watched as her daughter turned her back on her. Tearing her eyes from Ruby's retreating back, she buried her face in the crook of her lover's neck and wept even harder.

-

"Do you think that she's ever going to forgive me?" Charlie asked, resting her head against her girlfriend's shoulder as they lay together watching a movie on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

"Of course. I think that she already has."

"She doesn't act like it," the older woman muttered. She didn't want to sound bitter but she also couldn't help resenting the way that Ruby always ran to Joey now, instead of her.

"She's still trying to adjust. Give her time."

"How much time? Six months? A year?" Charlie sighed, her frustration dissipating as quickly as it appeared. "I just wish I knew when she's going to stop punishing me." She pouted, knowing that she sounded ridiculously petulant.

"She's not doing this to punish you, Charlie. You can't expect her to get over this in a couple of weeks. The most important thing is that she's still here and you two are still talking."

"I know," Charlie sighed. "You're right…Do you really think that this is all going to work out?" she asked. If Joey said that it was all going to be okay, then it would have to be true , because Joey didn't lie.

"I-"

She was interrupted by the sudden bang of the back door slamming against the wall as it was violently pushed open. Both women sprang to their feet.

"What the…" Charlie breathed as they moved to investigate. "Ruby?"

Ruby was slumped against the kitchen counter, having just guzzled a whole glass of water in an attempt to calm herself down. She looked pissed off and devastated all at the same time. "Xavier broke up with me!" she wailed, her face crumpling as she burst into tears.

Although she desperately wanted to step forward and comfort her daughter, Charlie respectfully hung back, expecting Ruby to go straight to Joey, as had been the case ever since that fateful weekend.

Charlie couldn't have been more shocked when Ruby bypassed Joey completely and threw herself into her mother's arms. The shock quickly subsided and Charlie tightened her grip on her sobbing daughter. Feeling so relieved that she could've cried herself, Charlie nuzzled the top of Ruby's head, cooing soothingly.

Joey smiled, watching mother and daughter embrace. _'Yeah,'_ she thought to herself. _'I think it's all going to work out just fine.'_

**END**


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